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Charly scowls for a second, but when I let go of her hands, she drops them and says to Seb, “Noodies, peas, Sebby.”
His lip quirks in what might be a smile, and he holds the bowl out to her again, but I pull her away.
“Get in your seat first, please.” I walk her to the table and help her climb into the raised chair Gia has for her.
Seb sets the bowl in front of her. Charly picks up a noodle with her fingers and pops it into her mouth. Seb smiles, then winces.
“Oh, she needs a fork, right? Or a spoon?” He opens a drawer and silverware clinks together as he searches for the right thing. “No, a fork.” He holds up a big metal fork, but before I can tell him she needs something smaller, he drops it back in the drawer and holds up a red plastic fork. “This is probably for her, right?”
I nod.
Charly looks at him and says, “Wewo.”
Seb blinks, gives up trying to figure out what she said, and hands her the fork. Which she throws on the floor.
“Charly! That’s not okay.” I rush to pick up the fork and carry it to the sink. “She wants yellow,” I explain to Seb while searching the drawer he just went through. “Usually I wouldn’t let her get away with acting like that, but I can tell she’s tired. If we’re going to get through a dance lesson, we want her happy.”
“Oh. Okay.” Seb is looking a little shell-shocked, and I guess I can’t blame him. A lot has happened in the past fifteen minutes.
It’s all everyday stuff—if you’re used to it every day.
I find the yellow fork and hand it to Charly, then turn to Seb. “We can do this another night. Or not at all. I know this is overwhelming.”
“Yeah,” Seb nods, and my heart dips. “I mean, yeah, it’s a lot.” He licks his lips. “But I can manage.”
There’s still a hole in my chest from the sudden exit of my heart—I didn’t know how much I wanted him to fight for me to stay until I thought he wouldn’t. I’m still processing the fact he doesn’t seem to be giving up, no matter what I throw at him. But I can’t stop myself from waiting for him to decide being with me would be too hard.
“You sure?” I suck in my breath and wait for his answer.
He meets my eyes, and even though neither of us moves, something powerful is pulling us together, filling the space between us with a force we can’t ignore.
“No, but I want to try. Is that enough?” The amber color in his eyes reflects the light above him, increasing the intensity of his gaze.
But that’s not the real reason I can’t say no to him. The real reason is that he’s seeing me and my life in a way I didn’t think he could. He’s still seeing with limited vision, but at least he recognizes that.
He’s trying.
“It’s enough.” I nod. “But you still haven’t answered my question.” I let a smile creep across my face. Because I never want things to just be serious with Seb. “Where’d you learn to hood slide like that?”
Chapter 17
Sebastian
While Hope helps Charly eat her pasta, I take the baked chicken alfredo from the oven. It looks like a lot of work for Hope, helping Charly guide her fork to her mouth with every bite. But I pretend not to notice.
I dish up a plate for Hope, with a side of bread and Italian salad, and set it in front of her while finally answering her question. “Bear and I like to watch stupid movies. We try to outdo each other to find the stupidest one.”
I take the seat across from Hope and continue. “I found this movie,Dukes of Hazzard, about these southern guys who are cousins. One is blonde. The other has dark hair.”
“Like you and Bear,” she says and takes a bite of her food. “Mmm, this is really good.”
“Yeah, like me and Bear. Anyway, the guys must have slid across the hood of their orange Dodge Charger—named the General Lee, I don’t know how they got away with that—at least a dozen times.”
Hope nods, and I don’t know if it’s the food or my story that’s making her look so happy, but I hope it’s me.
I can’t stop looking at her smile as I tell her the rest. “So then we went down this rabbit hole about hood slides that led us to the TV show the movie is based on and YouTube compilations of all their hood slides, and… long story short, we had to try it.”
“How’d that work out for you? Is it harder than it looks?” She asks while helping Charly with her food.
